Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Basilisk War Droid

So it seems like I spend a lot of time bouncing back and forth between Mandalorians and Jedi. And that is strange to me, since I wouldn't consider myself a huge fan of either. But.. there you go. In any case, this post is probably going to be a pretty short one. In the Tales of the Jedi comics (set 4,000 years prior to the movie timeline) an interesting new 'gadget' was introduced to the Star Wars universe—the Basilisk War droid. It's initial appearance (the top frame of the included picture) it...well...it didn't exactly blow me away. I mean, it looks like a...giant shrimp or something, with a bunch of gun barrels for a head. Just...bleh. Still, I always did like the concept behind it. Kind of like a giant, robotic warhorse that can also fly. Pretty cool. I was especially struck by the way one of the characters (Canderous Ordo) in Knights of the Old Republic spoke of the droid and his experiences actually 'riding' it in from orbit. Damn cool. If only it didn't look like a freaking crustacean.

The second appearance of the Basilisk was in the game Knights of the Old Republic II. And whoever designed that game either also disliked the original design of the robotic beast or was just too lazy/pressed for time to design it. Rather, they took the design of a much later vehicle (the Virago heavy starfighter from Shadows of the Empire) and just...called it a Basilisk. While I was kind of glad they at least didn't use the Giant Shrimp, I was still unsatisfied.

Thus it was, that when I re-introduced the Basilisk into my own campaign (found in an Ancient Mandalorian cache) I thought I would re-concept it. I always thought of it as more of a panther-like thing so... well, there you go. While I consider myself a passable artist, I am just not up to the task of designing my own robotic critters from scratch. Or maybe I'm just too lazy or pressed for time. In any case, I am also pretty good at photo retouching (part of my job) so I took some drawings I found on the web and mashed them together. Considering its for my own use and gratification, I'm posting them here.

You decide. Which one looks cooler and more 'Mandalorian'—Basilisk Mk I or Basilisk Mk II?